On Beginning to Stream Code

John Vandivier

This article describes my experience streaming code to date, motivation, some tricks I've learned, and future plans.

My Experience So Far

  1. I started out blogging just over 10 years ago.
    1. About 7 years ago I committed to an at-least-monthly publication schedule.
  2. I began creating very simple YouTube videos about 9 years ago
    1. I have never committed to a regular publication schedule.
    2. I have never run adds for my own YouTube channel or blog.
  3. I haven't wanted to run ads or scale my audience because I haven't yet had a real monetization strategy, but that appears to be changing in the near future.
    1. I plan to graduate with a PhD within the next year.
    2. I will have had three years of landlording experience within the next year.
    3. I have recently created a curriculum for learning to code which I think has a real value add over some of my favorite industry-current programs.
    4. I have obtained a few paying mentees that I am teaching to code. This is a real monetization opportunity for me.
    5. I am hoping to debut Ladderly.io after finishing the PhD.
  4. I recently began cross-platform streaming with Restream and I've been having a great time.
    1. I quickly discovered a solid programming-focused Twitch team. I've already started to learn some streaming tricks from this team, and I think I have a not-super-high-priority goal of joining their team.

Motivation

  1. Streaming to YouTube began because it was simply easier to stream than to create videos.
    1. Streaming doesn't have a video editing and upload process.
    2. The end product is arguably rougher, but based on recent sub growth it seems that it's a net benefit fit for me to post streams more frequently rather than edited videos much more rarely.
  2. Streaming cross-platform isn't much more work and potentially gives me a much larger audience.
  3. I also get away from dreaded YouTube lock-in.
  4. Growing my audience is eventually a way to scale to increase my influence, help more people learn, and potentially build a wider-known, monetizable brand. I'm not at that point yet, but, as I mention above, potentially in the next year.

Some Tricks I've Learned

  1. Use Restream.io to stream across channels.
  2. Use OBS or Streamlabs OBS for high-quality, cross-platform streaming, overlays, and the ability to put your face on top of your screen. This is actually essential for communication and relationship building.
  3. Overlay chat with your code editor for code streaming. Details on how to do that are here.
  4. Twitch is currently where it's at for live coding. Try and find a group of like-minded streamers and join their group. Support them and learn from them. Learn about what a Twitch Raid is.
  5. If you have a large network on another social channel, encourage them to use the other channels. For example, I have a decent YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook following, but like no Twitch following. It's easier for me to get the existing followers that may already use Twitch to go follow me on Twitch instead of building a new following from scratch.
    1. Related: You may have IRL friends that are already content creators. Talk to them about doing a video, stream, or article together. This can be a real content creation win-win.

Future Plans

Kind of a repeat of the above, but:

  1. Graduate from my PhD. Eventually write at least a couple books which leverage this expertise into:
    1. Perspectives on efficient software development from an Econ PhD + Programmer.
    2. Perspectives on efficient education from an Econ PhD + Programmer.
      1. You probably should start working while in high school.
      2. You might not need to immediately enroll in college.
      3. You might be able to publish peer-reviewed articles without getting a PhD.
      4. The PhD itself is, for most recipients, a surprisingly bad return on investment, and it is not an optimal way to prove you know what you are talking about.
    3. Perspectives on wealth management, and real estate investing in particular, from...you get it.
  2. Create a program around learning to code.
  3. Scale my audience and minimally monetize around learning to code.
  4. Ladderly.io is a kind-of-secret-ish business model that is about more than learning to code which is also planned to get increased attention in the future.